BAE Systems has received a $51 million U.S. Air Force contract modification for support services for the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile weapon system.

The company exercised an option on the previously awarded contract for the fixed-price, level of effort modification.

The deal calls for BAE to provide systems engineering, technical assistance support, as well as training and development in performing integration, sustaining engineering and program management support functions for the system.

Work will be performed in Utah and is expected to be completed by July 2017.

The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center is the contracting activity.

The Minuteman is an intercontinental ballistic missile system dispersed via hardened silos to protect against attack and connected to an underground launch control center, where two-officer crews perform around-the-clock alert in the launch control center.

Minuteman I was deployed in the early 1960s, with the current array of 450 Minuteman III missiles located at several Air Force bases across the United States.